A Life in Motion: Exploring Auto/Biographical Exchanges by ‘Walking With’ Nelson Sullivan

John Goodwin and Laurie Parsons
Additional contact information
John Goodwin: University of Leicester, UK
Laurie Parsons: University of Leicester, UK

Sociological Research Online, 2022, vol. 27, issue 3, 724-744

Abstract: In this article, we combine a number of related elements – YouTube films, autobiographical methods, diaries, letters, and walking – to explore the sociological value of the films of Nelson Sullivan (1948–1989). Sullivan was a film maker who documented New York, and elsewhere, in the mid-late 1980s; however, the films are ‘vlogger style’ and offer richly detailed, relational, and dialogical accounts of the ever-changing figurations between Nelson and a cast of other characters. Here we aim to walk sociologically with Nelson. We explain of how we analysed Nelson’s films before considering the implications of repositioning ‘vlogs’ as something of a hybrid between letters and diaries. We then explore walking as an autobiographical act a little further. Finally, we conclude by considering the implications of Nelson’s work for past, present, and future sociological practice which uses YouTube videos and vlogs, by emphasising the importance of the ‘dialogic exchange’.

Keywords: auto/biography; films and vlogs; LGBTQ; Nelson Sullivan; New York; YouTube (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804211025541 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:27:y:2022:i:3:p:724-744

DOI: 10.1177/13607804211025541

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().